And now, the host of Password Plus...

[aaron sica]

[quote name=\'Terry K\' date=\'Apr 8 2005, 07:35 PM\']
if you watch the show and see the wide shots, it looks like Ludden is still there.  Tom has the same glasses and overall appearance.

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[/quote]

As with most of us, I was a game show fan from a young age. I didn't know who Allen Ludden and Tom Kennedy were until I got a little older, but when I was about 6 1/2 or 7, and watching that show, I remember thinking, "I don't think that's the same guy that they started with..."

[chris319]

The fact that he's spent 30+ years hosting every show in the same pukey DJ style pretty much proves that, I think.

"It's more than Password -- it's Password Puke!"

TK was picked in part by Betty and Allen themselves to take over.

Don't believe everything you read in celebrity autobiographies.

[Terry K]

[quote name=\'chris319\' date=\'Apr 8 2005, 06:44 PM\']

TK was picked in part by Betty and Allen themselves to take over.

Don't believe everything you read in celebrity autobiographies.

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That's why I said in part  

To refresh my memory, Chris, can you post anything on the actual selection of TK?  

I really think TK did a good job with P+ and made the show his.  Also, he had very big shoes to fill, and he filled them well.  

G-T seemed to do an excellent job picking hosts for their creations and revivals.

Not to change the topic but who was the WORST host that G-T ever drafted?

[chris319]

Allen and Betty were very tight-lipped about Allen's illness until he suffered his stroke. For Allen and/or Betty to have "picked" or even suggested a long-term replacement would have tipped us off to the seriousness of his illness.

Not to change the topic but who was the WORST host that G-T ever drafted?

It would be betwen Dick Martin and Sonny Fox.

[calliaume]

[quote name=\'chris319\' date=\'Apr 8 2005, 07:26 PM\']Allen and Betty were very tight-lipped about Allen's illness until he suffered his stroke. For Allen and/or Betty to have "picked" or even suggested a long-term replacement would have tipped us off to the seriousness of his illness.

Not to change the topic but who was the WORST host that G-T ever drafted?

It would be betwen Dick Martin and Sonny Fox.

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[/quote]
Well, there's always Lee Bowman, but that was before your time.  And I think Frank Buxton was probably a washout too, given Robert Q. Lewis replaced him.

Seriously, Eubanks wouldn't have been in contention.  At that point, Goodson still had a bee in his bonnet over Rhyme and Reason, and wouldn't have considered Eubanks for anything.  He got over it a few years later.

Ol' reliable Jim Peck would have been an option, but I'm pretty sure they wanted a more well-known name.  To be honest, Kennedy was as good as anyone else they could have had.

[Jimmy Owen]

A couple of other gentlemen who had worked for Goodson in the past and might have been good were Alex Trebek and Monty Hall.  They both had to go to Vancouver for work (Monty got paid, though. Right?)

[chris319]

What we don't know, but can only speculate, is that ABC may have been influential in Eubanks getting Trivia Trap in the same way CBS was influential in Monty getting Beat the Clock. Goodson would never have hired Monty of his own free will, given that they were direct business competitors.

Alex may have been too cool (aloof?) to establish a rapport with celebrities, at least that may have been the perception.

[The Ol' Guy]

As far as Eubanks goes, you have pretty much accented the points I made in the first statment - it would have to be now, not then - he would have to drop the Mr. Top-40 ramrod announcer style and be casual, and he'd have to let the players and contestants be the focus, not himself, allowing just some occasional "what were you thinking?" facial reactions to odd clues.  I think there are some similarities in the style of hosting for Password and Newlywed Game, but Bob's warm interaction skills have never been strong. At least to me, anyway. The one thing that was hardest to reconcile about Eubanks was..even though a Bob developed it, it just sounded strange to hear a "Bob" announced as the star of Password. A lighter game, yes...  But enough on that.

As far as G-T host picks, did Mark approve or just reluctantly accept the selection of Bowzer on Match Game/Hollywood Squares Hour? Did being a co-producer limit his say on some things, since Squares was an Orion property? And as much as I like Bob and Ray as performers, what few episodes I saw of The Name's The Same, they seemed uncomfortable in an unscripted situation.

[calliaume]

[quote name=\'chris319\' date=\'Apr 8 2005, 10:01 PM\']What we don't know, but can only speculate, is that ABC may have been influential in Eubanks getting Trivia Trap in the same way CBS was influential in Monty getting Beat the Clock. Goodson would never have hired Monty of his own free will, given that they were direct business competitors.

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Eubanks says in his book (or at least the early galley form; I haven't gotten the finished book) that he ran into Goodson's attorney at LAX and asked to audition for Goodson, and got Trivia Trap a few weeks later.  It's possible ABC might have made some sort of deal with Hill-Eubanks (that was Bob's production company in the early '80s) that fell through, and ABC gave Eubanks a payoff by having him host Trivia Trap (isn't that more or less how Monty would up on All-New Beat the Clock?).  That's the only possible quid pro quo I can think of; Eubanks hadn't hosted anything for ABC since Rhyme and Reason closed shop eight years before.

Eubanks says in the book he would be terrible at hosting Jeopardy; I don't think he'd be especially good at Password, either.  It's the sort of game where, if things are going well, the host isn't especially noticeable, and Eubanks has never been the receding type.  (Well, maybe his hairline...)

[JMFabiano]

[quote name=\'Terry K\' date=\'Apr 8 2005, 07:00 PM\']
I really think TK did a good job with P+ and made the show his.  Also, he had very big shoes to fill, and he filled them well. 

G-T seemed to do an excellent job picking hosts for their creations and revivals.
[/quote]

Yes on both counts...PW+ did indeed have real winners guiding the show in Tom, Allen, and Bill.  And up until 1991, G-T/MGP seemed to make bringing back shows effortless, even the short-lived revivals had some merit.  If only their successors at Fremantle had the same magic powers...

[FeudDude]

[quote name=\'JMFabiano\' date=\'Apr 8 2005, 10:55 PM\']Yes on both counts...PW+ did indeed have real winners guiding the show in Tom, Allen, and Bill.  And up until 1991, G-T/MGP seemed to make bringing back shows effortless, even the short-lived revivals had some merit.  If only their successors at Fremantle had the same magic powers...

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See that's the thing.  Goodson and his associates knew how to tinker with a format and make it work. Shows like the current-day TPIR, Match Game 7x, Password Plus, and to a lesser extent the various '80s revivals all showed that change isn't necessarily a bad thing.  However, once Mark died, so did all the creativity.  The folks at Fremantle can't seem to change things without messing them up badly, so really, the best advice for them is to play it safe.  Hopefully they'll keep that in mind if they ever choose to revive Password.

[Terry K]

I think a lot of it with G-T was they had the clout to pretty much pick their own hosts.  They knew the host inventory they had and knew where to place them.

If we look at the hosts that G-T used, they were very hesitant to bring in new hosts unless they *had* to.   (Almost all the major hosts have worked for G-T at least once and been pretty good at it)

The 80s gave us several brand new hosts (Combs, Henry, Bowman and Rafferty), of varying quality.  After watching Rafferty, he is as I've said is *very* under-rated as a host.  I'm watching Eubanks CS now and it seems to drag on and on, Rafferty kept things moving and didn't ramble nearly as much as Eubanks did.

I'm not convinced Eubanks was Mark's first choice for CS.  I think that Rafferty would have been better on the daytime version, but with Eubanks doing NG during that era, I'm guessing that was why Rafferty was tapped for the night time version)

Every other host that G-T used in the 80s was someone they'd already used prior.  

Even Ross Shafer wasn't *that* bad on MG '90.  He had the format down, it was the lousy match-up thing (ABC possibly responsible for!?)  I saw a lot of Gene Rayburn in him, he wasn't as fully comfortable with the format as he should or could have been.

[Jimmy Owen]

This is somewhat straying from the topic, but I found it interesting that "Blockbusters" on NBC was up against "Card Sharks" on CBS.  So Rafferty had to compete against a version of a show he hosted in syndication.  Would that fall under irony?

[dzinkin]

[quote name=\'aaron sica\' date=\'Apr 8 2005, 07:43 PM\'][quote name=\'Terry K\' date=\'Apr 8 2005, 07:35 PM\']
if you watch the show and see the wide shots, it looks like Ludden is still there.  Tom has the same glasses and overall appearance.

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[/quote]

As with most of us, I was a game show fan from a young age. I didn't know who Allen Ludden and Tom Kennedy were until I got a little older, but when I was about 6 1/2 or 7, and watching that show, I remember thinking, "I don't think that's the same guy that they started with..."

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I recall reading a story about Ludden's stroke and not quite knowing what that meant (I was 9 years old at the time) -- but I figured it had something to do with why I saw Tom some months later on the show.  I don't recall ever seeing a Cullen episode in first run.

[GS Warehouse]

[quote name=\'Jimmy Owen\' date=\'Apr 9 2005, 09:00 AM\']This is somewhat straying from the topic, but I found it interesting that "Blockbusters" on NBC was up against "Card Sharks" on CBS.  So Rafferty had to compete against a version of a show he hosted in syndication.  Would that fall under irony?

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[/quote]No, that would fall under coincidence. :-)

Random but on-topic thought: We know CBS and Goodson had to find a new host for CS since Jim Perry was busy with $ale of the Century.  Had Jim been available, would he have gotten a look?

ObCS: Anyone else find it odd that the syndicated CS used art cards for the short credit roll while CBS used CGI for the daytime show?

[quote name=\'David Zinkin\' date=\'post count\']Posts: 992[/quote]There's an O'Jays song in there somewhere...